Lewis S. Ford

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lewis Ford (born November 18, 1933 in Leonia , New Jersey ) is an American philosopher and theologian , who is known for his contributions to process philosophy and process theology .

Life

Ford attended the widely recognized Phillips Academy in Andover , Massachusetts . After graduating in 1951, he attended Yale College and graduated from 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude . He then went to Germany for a year, where he attended lectures in Münster . On his return he studied at Emory University for a year . He then moved back to Yale and began a doctorate in 1957 . In the same year he married Anne Lide, with whom he had daughters Stephanie Anne and Rachel Lynn. He completed his dissertation on Paul Tillich with John E. Smith in 1962. With a Danforth Fellowship he was able to do another year of biblical studies at Yale Divinity School .

After Yale, Ford taught philosophy at MacMurray College , Jacksonville , and then at Raymond College at the University of the Pacific , Stockton . From 1970 to 1973 he received a position at Penn State University , where he received an NEH Fellowship. In 1974 he was finally appointed to a full professorship at Old Dominion University in Norfolk (Virginia) , Virginia , where he taught until his retirement in 1996.

Teaching

A study visit to Claremont at the Center for Process Studies in the late 1960s , where he attended a weekly seminar with John B. Cobb , played a key role in Ford's development . While Ford represented a position of process philosophy closely aligned with Whitehead , Cobb tried, more oriented towards Hartshorne , to raise questions about the further development of process thinking. As a result, Ford and Cobb founded a new journal together, Process Studies, in 1971 . The argument about Hartshorne's idealistic orientation and Whitehead's realistic approach led to a study in which Ford put the two positions in relation to Hegel . Subsequently, Ford published a study on the possibility of combining Whitehead's philosophy with a biblical theology. His main work is the subsequent work on the philosophical development of Whitehead in the period between 1925, the year of the first writing on the new metaphysics by Whitehead ( Science and Modern Word ), and 1928, Whitehead's mature position in process and reality . By showing breaks and changes in Whitehead's thinking in this short period of time, Ford has made an important and much-cited contribution to understanding Whitehead.

Eventually Ford developed his own path in process theology by developing alternative concepts of God, making reference to traditional concepts of philosophical theology. He saw Whitehead's problem in the fact that God as a unity is never complete and perfect. Something that has not yet been completed has not yet been determined and therefore cannot be recognized. That is why Hartshorne did not describe God as a singularity, but as the unity of a multitude, the closed elements of which can be grasped by humans. Ford, on the other hand, equates God with the activity of the future, in which there is an interaction of God with man. For Ford, creatures grasp God as their future possibilities. Therefore creativity is derived from God and subjectivity is a realization of God in man.

Fonts

  • The ontological foundation of Paul Tillich's theory of the religious symbol, Diss.Yale 1962
  • Two Process Philosophers. Hartshorne's Encounter with Whitehead. American Academy of Religion, Tallahassee / FL 1973
  • The Lure of God. The Biblical Background of Process Philosophy. Fortress Press, Philadelphia / PA 1976
  • The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics, 1925-1929. State University of New York Press, Albany / NY 1984
  • Transforming Process Theism. Sunny Press 2000
as editor
  • Exploration in Whitehead's Philosophy. Fordham University Press 1983 (16 articles)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ford, Lewis S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ford, Lewis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American process philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Leonia , New Jersey